What's Left in North Dakota

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Monthly Archives: November 2012

So the Puerto Rico referendum hit the hard train to spinsville by the end of last week, begging the question, what constitutes clear support for statehood anyway?

Modern international law has much to say about independence and secession, much less about accession. History since World War II, which is about as far back as most human institutions seem to want to remember, has seen many splits, many divorces, but very few tie-ups.

If “C R” is out there scanning the interwebs, I invite you to explain your motivation – perhaps at the most conservative coffee stop in town? If you’re actually a fictional character, I still have a few ideas.

America has been stagnant long enough. It’s long past time for another star, another pair of Senators. So bust out those 51-star flags. And start deciding about what we need to do about Guam, the Northern Marianas, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands.

Tonight, we’ll know for sure just how bad today is for balance in government in North Dakota. Are we a state with one or two checks and balances, or none at all?

Unless one of three League candidates win — Brad Crabtree, Ryan Taylor, or Scot Kelsh — there is no reason to expect there to be any physical barrier to the corrupt way our state is managed.

But there’s also no reason to say we should sit down and take it.

I think it’s time to take a page from parliamentary democracies, where a dominant party is challenged each week by qualified opposition members. Tonight will be a grave defeat indeed if the NPL doesn’t form a shadow cabinet to stand for the next four years.

State GOP Chairman Gary Emineth decided that this year — not 2008, or 2010, was the year that he wanted to leave his yard signs up on Election Day. So he filed a lawsuit that threw out North Dakota’s electioneering law, winning in record time. It’s a victory for all North Dakotans. Certainly, it’s more of a victory if you have millions of dollars in SuperPAC funds at your disposal, but it’s still technically justice, right?

I don’t really see it as consistent, how our state’s Attorney General will go to the ends of the earth to defend the “tradition” of a doomed sports logotype, but fail to file any appeal to protect the Norwegianly-humble election practices formerly associated with our state. But there you go.

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After a scathing report of gubernatorial corruption crystallized the notion that something is terribly wrong in the west, a group of landowners in Dunn County started a petition that maybe, kinda, sorta, might be getting their local DA to actually investigate. Despite the fact that a judge must immediately convene a grand jury under state law. I guess justice is slow when it runs against the Republican politburo.